Home > Blogs > Diana Young > Diana Young's (dianayoung) Blog

HGTV's "25 Biggest Real Estate Mistakes"

By Diana Young

Home Stager with Staging Seattle, King & Snohomish Counties

April 13, 2008 03:42 PM

Do you know what they are? According to the real estate experts on HGTV's "25 Biggest Real Estate Mistakes"

the Number 1 mistake sellers make is:

"Failing to Showcase Your Home and Make Small Cosmetic Changes"

"When you are selling your house, you have to really look at it objectively and think about it from the viewpoint of the house hunter. Make minor enhancements to the house and maybe hire a professional stager to come and arrange your furniture. Staging is about decorating your house for the buyers' taste, not yours. A great place to start is with the front of the home and the main entryway. Home staging is designed to increase the potential selling price and reduce the amount of time the house stays on the market."

Staging by SISTERS Interior Redesign, Edmonds, WA, www.sistersredesign.com, 425.776.7890

Give your listing the competitive advantage of professional home staging.

Contact us today for a complimentary staging quote.

Comments(19)

Comment

Show All Comments

Sort:

LaNita Cates

REMAX of Joliet - Joliet, IL

Very beautiful room! You did an excellent job. I wished you would have shown a before photo.

Apr 13, 2008 03:48 PM

Roberta Anderson

Hearth & Home Staging - Silverdale, WA

Hearth & Home Staging, Staging Kitsap County

Diana, I just finished watching. I always knew I liked HGTV!

Yea for them for making "NOT STAGING THE #1 MISTAKE SELLERS MAKE"!!!!

Apr 13, 2008 04:08 PM

Lynda Eisenmann

Preferred Home Brokers - Brea, CA

Broker Associate ,CRS,GRI,SRES, Brea,CA, Orange Co

Hi Diana,

Great info...decorating for the buyer's taste, not yours. Great advice, thanks.

Apr 13, 2008 04:09 PM

Scott S. Kamiya

Honolulu, HI

CRS, GRI, SRES

This is one way HGTV is helping our industry.

Apr 13, 2008 04:21 PM

Joe Virnig

RE/MAX Gold Coast REALTORS, Ventura County, California - Ventura, CA

No Ordinary Joe

One possible downside to recommending a home stager to clients is they may change there mind about selling once they see what a home stager can do. It's happened twice in my office. It's money well spent.

Apr 13, 2008 04:27 PM

Julianna Hind

eXp Realty - Tacoma, WA

REALTOR, 206-679-4768, Tacoma Federal Way, Auburn, Kent, WA

Hi Dana, congratulations on the feature -- great post and good buzz for our industry!

Apr 13, 2008 04:35 PM

Cyndee Haydon

Charles Rutenberg Realty - Clearwater, FL

727-710-8035 Clearwater, Beach Short Sales Luxury Condos &Homes

Congrats on being part of it and sharing - missed it and meant to watch - are you gonna share the other 24 :)

Apr 13, 2008 04:43 PM

Deborah Burns ~ Seattle Real Estate Agent

Realty Executives -BRIO - Seattle, WA

I missed that too...I will have to look for repeats of the program. Thanks for letting us know!

Apr 13, 2008 04:52 PM

Lane Bailey

Century 21 Results Realty - Suwanee, GA

Realtor & Car Guy

Absolutely. So many homes that buyers can choose from. Making your seller's home stand out is imperative.

Apr 13, 2008 04:57 PM

Gabriele Campbell

D F Campbell Ventures Group Inc. - Saint Albert, AB

ASP, CID

That is really gorgeous. The three P's of selling - product, price, & presentation - must all be in ideal alignment for the sale to take place. Forget one and the product will languish. Will you be posting the other 24? I'm curious now!

Apr 14, 2008 01:27 AM

Ginger Foust

Certified Staging Professional - Oakhurst, CA

Home Stager Oakhurst CA, Dream Interior Redesign & Staging

Diana, Actually I'm surprised if we have the only two blogs about this. I'm lousy at adding clipart, (anything but my photos) and yours make a real impact.

As long as we get the message out who cares how many times they read about it and in what form. I'm just so happy that the tide is turning for all of us. Now to get the sellers and agents to "buy" into it!

Apr 14, 2008 03:15 AM

Anonymous

I have seen how staging makes a difference- good job!

Apr 14, 2008 03:24 AM

#12

Lisa Sherman

Interior Aura - Salem, OR

Home Stager, Interior, Redesign & Decorating - Salem Oregon

Saw the episode last night and was hoping to see staging in the top 3... imagine how excited I was when it was #1!! A great boost for the industry!

Apr 14, 2008 09:04 AM

Julie Davis, Amy Blank - Rediscovered Interiors, LLC

Rediscovered Interiors, LLC - Andover, MN

I was wondering where we would come in at--I was watching the 11 p.m. show of this, but fell asleep at number 16. So glad you shared this!!

Apr 14, 2008 11:41 AM

Tori Lynn Wallitsch

Prudential Ambassador / Ross Designs, LLC - Omaha, NE

I only have one tiny concern and that is with some of the wording. Did this come direct from the tv show? I missed it but have it scheduled to record next Sunday. I think saying that, "Staging is about decorating your house for the buyers' taste, not yours" is misleading. We actually say Home Staging is not decorating, it's marketing. How can we stage or decorate for a buyer's taste, when there are so many taste and preference possibilities? I think it's better to leave the word decorating separate from Home Staging.

Apr 14, 2008 03:08 PM

Sharon Tara

Sharon Tara Transformations - Portsmouth, NH

Retired New Hampshire Home Stager

Good ole HGTV! Love to get reinforcement from such an impressive and respected source!

Apr 15, 2008 02:00 AM

Diana Young

Staging Seattle, King & Snohomish Counties - Edmonds, WA

The wording in quotes is taken directly from the HGTV website. I might have worded it a bit differently because I do agree that staging is different than "decorating", but I think that HGTV made the point that when a home is staged it needs to appeal to the majority of potential home buyers, which is not necessarily the style or taste of the home seller.

I've posted a link to the other 24 "Biggest Mistakes" on a new post. Some great advice for both sellers and buyers!

Apr 15, 2008 04:47 AM

Janice Sutton

1st Stage Property Transformations - Murrieta, CA

Home Stager - Temecula Murrieta

I saw the last few minutes of the show but was thrilled that Staging was #1 and Pricing was #2!!! Thanks for the post and thanks HGTV!

Apr 15, 2008 05:48 AM

Audrey Hoffman

VoteAudrey blog - Columbia, SC

VoteAudrey

Great news :)

Apr 15, 2008 09:57 AM

HGTV's "25 Biggest Real Estate Mistakes"

Comments(19)

Diana Young

Real Estate Resources

Recent Posts